The Fatal Apollo 1 Fire — January 27, 1967

Fifty years ago today, the three-man crew of the Apollo 1 mission were killed when a fire broke out inside their Command Module during a launch rehearsal test at Cape Canaveral (then named Cape Kennedy Air Force Station), Launch Complex 34, on January 27, 1967. The astronauts were unable to open the hatch from inside.

Apollo 1 would have been Chaffee's first space flight, White's second, and Grissom's third.

The Command Module had been mated to (connected atop of) the towering Saturn IB launch vehicle on January 6. The scheduled launch date was February 21, and the January 27 test was a crucial one to see if the spacecraft would operate with internal electrical power.

The review board determined that there had been a momentary power failure at 6:30:55 EST, but a single ignition source was never identified. (See full report.)

The launch complex was used for a final time on October 11, 1968—for the first manned Apollo launch, that of Apollo 7—and later decommissioned. NASA razed most of it, but the launch pedestal remains. A memorial plaque is affixed to it.